The dementia doctor

Kottayam: Dr Rajani is busy listening to memories, even from those who have forgotten them. Being a part of the Alzheimers and Related Diseases Society of India, the doctor whose passion is to care for dementia patients, is busy listening and living with her elderly patients.

As a child she used to eagerly wait to return to her paternal home at Palakkad to nurse her grandmother. Later she shifted from her childhood home in Kolkata to Kottayam after marrying Dr. Vasudevan, settling down with him at the Ammancherry Purayannur Mana.

After marriage, she started working for TRADA and continued to be associated with them from 1997 to 2013. It was Sister Jovan Chungappura at TRADA who encouraged her to study more about dementia.

Soon she was invited by social worker Mathew Kanamala to associate with the Alzheimer's Society. She joined and was very soon travelling with the other members of the society meeting patients and giving them the necessary succour.

Today she takes her 72-year-old mother out for shopping and travels with her patients giving them as much care and socialization as they can get. She is always on the lookout for anyone who might need care.

Dr. Rajani has also collected the necessary education to support her efforts. She is trained in care at the Sheldon hospital under the Wolverhampton hospital in England. In 2005 she secured a certificate degree in geriatrics and in 2011 another one for pain and palliative care from the IGNOU. She also has a M Sc in Dementia from Sterling University.

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